Buying a house that has now entered Probate. Help!

SarahShiels

We sold our house and had a offer accepted on a another in February this year. The house we are buying is empty, with the owner in a care home and his daughters selling it on his behalf, with power of attorney. He has now subsequently died, meaning we need to wait for the Grant of Probate before we can complete. 

We are hoping to be moved before the stamp duty extension finishes (June 30th), but now are concerned we won’t make it. 

On average how long is the grant of probate taking to come through once the application has been submitted? Thanks 

Gavin83

Honestly I think it'll be a miracle if you make the stamp duty extension date. Not only do you have probate to consider but there are a number of processes that can't start until probate is granted. To give you an idea we were looking to buy a house in probate a few weeks ago. The process had just started and we were told a minimum of 3 months for it to go through but could potentially be double that.

Most people I know who have bought a house have taken 6 months to get the keys from their offer being accepted and that's pre covid and without probate to consider.

Rodders53

That's a how long is a piece of string question.

It may be quite quick as the daughter?/(s)? {number may matter} with Power of Attorney could have full insight into the deceased's affairs, and an agreed house sale price, and if they are the only Executrix(es) and the only beneficiary(ies) and are D-I-Ying the Probate application it could all be applied for pretty quickly.  (Assuming all is well below the IHT liability levels). 

But that also depends on highly variable and unpredictable factors within HMRC (Tax forms) and the Probate Courts (issuing the Grant) once all the paperwork is submitted.
Paperwork has also occasionally been lost/mislaid in the Post causing delays.

However if there's a Will and a Solicitor is a named Executor it'll be a guaranteed minimum 6 months (waiting for unknown debts to come out of the woodwork) unless they can get the Solicitor to renounce and take over to d-i-y it.

Then you have the normal house sale/purchase processes (fortunately the Estate selling and the Owner selling via a PoA are so similar that that side may go smoothly enough if Attorney and Exacutrix are one and the same and it's all been proceeding well?).

getmore4less

The first thing to check is was the deceased the sole legal owner.

If there was another legal owner they can continue the sale.

SevenOfNine

Sole owner deceased's house went on the market mid Nov, agent had a cash developer buyer on the same day.

DiY probate application was submitted on 17 November, granted in record time & the house sale completed on 22 January.  Everything shot along at a surprising rate given covid restrictions! 

Estate value was below IHT threshold, 3 beneficiaries were also executors, 2 reserved powers & the third acted alone (me).

Marcon

SarahShiels said:

We sold our house and had a offer accepted on a another in February this year. The house we are buying is empty, with the owner in a care home and his daughters selling it on his behalf, with power of attorney. He has now subsequently died, meaning we need to wait for the Grant of Probate before we can complete. 

We are hoping to be moved before the stamp duty extension finishes (June 30th), but now are concerned we won’t make it. 

On average how long is the grant of probate taking to come through once the application has been submitted? Thanks 

Average is meaningless, unfortunately. Far too many variables to make it of any use - but if the estate is simple and the executors put their foot not he gas, there's some chance. Do hope so!

xylophone

Many years ago,  around  late December time, I  offered on a  flat  owned by the resident of a care home.

She died and my solicitor asked whether I would like to pull out of the purchase as this lady's affairs were in the hands of the Court of Protection and the wait to exchange contracts could be a long one.

I was then living at home and had no pressing need to move so said I'd stick it out.

 To my solicitor's  surprise,  we were able to  complete within weeks and I had moved in by late March.

thegreenone

My late Mum's solicitors advised me currently 6-8 weeks for probate.  In fact, I emailed at lunchtime for an update.

Don't forget that you won't pay stamp duty below £250,000 until end September.  I hope that will, at least, help a bit.

Budget 2021: Stamp duty holiday extended in England and Northern Ireland (moneysavingexpert.com)

Cookie211

Hi thought I would join in as we going through this now, just put a offer on a house which have been accepted but the house is going through probate,the lady haven’t long submitted the application, I don’t really know much about probate to be honest but the estate agent said it will take around 4/5 months but hoping it will be before then as we have had the full mortgage offer but the vendor from the first house pulled out, found  this better house to be told it’s going through probate, the estate agent have seen the will and said it don’t look to Complicated so fingers crossed 🤞 

thegreenone

An update from me above: Probate for my Mum's estate was granted on 28 April.  So seven weeks from the solicitor submitting to HMRC (4 weeks) and apply for Grant (3 weeks). I was really surprised as I thought it would be at least another month.

Flat about to go on the market. 

Fingers crossed for all those in this situation.